Life Sciences Commons^™

Covid-19 Pandemic Impacts On Mammalian Carnivore Activity In The Eastern United States, Joan Tremblay, Miranda Davis, Robert Bagchi

Honors Scholar Theses

Lockdowns and restrictions associated with the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic altered human activity, with potential impacts on wildlife. In particular, the activity of reclusive mammalian carnivores, which often avoid humans, may have been affected with ramifications for population connectivity and viability. Here, I evaluate changes in the capture rates of humans and mammalian carnivores between 2019 and 2020 across 31 sites in the Eastern United States. Site-specific capture records were obtained from the Snapshot USA camera trapping survey. Differences in carnivore activity were modelled as a response to human activity changes and the development level of the site (urban, suburban, rural …

The Effects Of Infliximab On The Fibrosis Response Of Three-Spine Stickleback, Mita Kale

Honors Scholar Theses

This study was conducted to determine if the monoclonal antibody drug infliximab could effectively suppress the fibrosis immune response in three-spine stickleback fish. Successful suppression of this response could allow for further study of cestode infection and growth without the presence of fibrosis. Infliximab’s efficacy was investigated through conducting two intraperitoneal injection experiments and examinations of the fibrosis in the body cavity of the euthanized stickleback. We used immune adjuvant alum to induce a fibrosis response without the presence of the S. solidus tapeworm parasite. Ultimately, the differences in fibrosis levels between the treatment groups that received alum and the …

Stoichiometry And Parasitism: Changes In Nutrient Concentrations In The Three-Spined Stickleback-Schistocephalus Solidus System, Megan Braat

Honors Scholar Theses

Ecological stoichiometry is a rapidly growing field of study that assesses the elemental composition of organisms in ecosystems and the impact that changes in these elemental compositions have on populations. Parasitism is widely studied for its role in altering the physiology and behavior of hosts within a population. However, the interaction between parasitism and the stoichiometry of the host-parasite system has not been well-established. To determine the impact of parasitism on stoichiometry of host, we measured the elemental composition (%C, %N, and %P) and ratios (C:N, C:P, and N:P) of a population of parasitized and unparasitized Gasterosteus aculeatus (three-spined stickleback) …

Seasonal Plumage Condition Variation And The Thermal Value Of The Feather Coats Of House Sparrows (Passer Domesticus), Jordana Mf Graveley, Margaret Rubega, Kevin R. Burgio

Honors Scholar Theses

Feathers are critical to how birds thermoregulate, and thus their total energy balance. The feather coat insulates birds by trapping air next to the skin and acting as a physical barrier to heat loss. Despite previous work studying thermal balance in birds, relatively few studies have focused on the thermal contribution of the feather coat alone; most studies have focused on physiological and behavioral responses. Moreover, to our knowledge, no studies have directly measured the effect of feather wear through the annual cycle on the thermal performance of the feather coat. To address this, we used a thermal camera to …

Watching Grass Grow: How Soil Moisture Affects Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizae And Growth In Little Bluestem, Laura M. Jones

Honors Scholar Theses

Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) are an ancient mutualism in which soil-dwelling fungi enhance plant absorption of phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for photosynthates. VAM are sensitive to changes in soil moisture and nutrient content, fluctuating between mutualism and parasitism depending on conditions of drought stress and nutrient deficiency. Understanding how VAM respond to precipitation changes is crucial for both conservation and agricultural purposes. To test how soil moisture changes the effects of VAM colonization and growth in little bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium), a common prairie grass, I planted 300 seeds in a greenhouse in sterilized soil and soil inoculated with …

Deicing Salts Influence Ranavirus Outbreaks In Wood Frog (Lithobates Sylvaticus) Tadpoles, Sarah Jacobson

Honors Scholar Theses

Ecosystems are increasingly being exposed to anthropogenic stressors that could make animals and thus populations more susceptible to disease. For example, the application of deicing salts to roads is increasing in the northeastern United States. Chronic stress that larval amphibians experience when living in vernal pools with high salinity may alter their susceptibility to ranavirus, a pathogen responsible for mass mortality events worldwide. This project quantifies the effects of road salts and ranavirus exposure on larval wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) growth and survival. Using outdoor mesocsoms, we raised wood frog tadpoles in salt treatments and then exposed them …

Confirming World-Wide Distribution Of An Agriculturally Important Lacewing, Chrysoperla Zastrowi Sillemi, Using Songs, Morphology, Mitochondrial Gene Sequencing, And Phylogenetic Reconstruction, Zoe Mandese

Honors Scholar Theses

The Chrysoperla carnea-group of green lacewings is a cryptic species complex. Species within the group are morphologically similar, yet isolated from one another via reproductive mating song. Chrysoperla zastrowi, a species within the carnea-group, is currently described with a distribution ranging from South Africa to the Middle East and India. However, recent collections of carnea-group lacewings from Guatemala and California were preliminarily identified as Chrysoperla zastrowi based upon similarities in their vibrational courtship songs. This analysis aims to place six specimens, collected by collaborators in Guatemala, Armenia, Iran, and California, into a pre-existing phylogeny of the …

Juvenile Amphibian Response To Oak And Maple Leaf Litter, Benjamin Breslau

Honors Scholar Theses

The composition of tree species within New England forests has changed significantly in recent decades, with an increase in maple (Acer spp.) abundance and a decrease in oak (Quercus spp.) abundance. Changing forest structure results in changing leaf litter composition of the forest floor, which influences the ground-dwelling amphibians that live in the litter. To better understand how changes to forest composition alters amphibian habitat quality, we recorded the growth and survival of 27 juvenile wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus or Rana sylvatica) and 27 juvenile American toads (Anaxyrus americanus) in response to leaf litter …

How Does Body Size Affect Zooplankton Feeding In A Low Oxygen Environment?, Jacob Mikullitz

Honors Scholar Theses

Zooplankton grazers are essential to reducing the impact of algal blooms, especially as they become more frequent in a warming world. The size of these grazers is important as it determines how much algae they are able to consume. This study aims to investigate how low water oxygen content, another likely outcome of climate change, will impact competition between zooplankton of different size. When zooplankton of different sizes were tested against each other at different dissolved oxygen levels, it was found the larger species could feed more effectively at low oxygen. This suggests even in a future with reduced dissolved …

Ecofeminism In The Speculative Fiction Of Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler, And Margaret Atwood, Cara Williams

Honors Scholar Theses

The aim of this article is to explore the speculative fiction works of three prominent, female speculative fiction writers: Ursula K. Le Guin, Margaret Atwood,and Octavia Butler through an ecofeminist lens. Ecofeminism, as first coined by Francois D'Eaubonne in 1974, is a philosophy that compares the oppression and abuse of women to that of the environment. This article notes how Le Guin, Atwood, and Butler portray women and the environment in post-apocalyptic science fiction. Specifically, this article looks at how these authors explore food acquisition and consumption in their various worlds. This article asks the question, how does our relationship …

Identification, Characterization, And Life Cycle Of Intein-Associated Homing Endonucleases, Joshua J. Skydel

Honors Scholar Theses

Inteins are molecular parasites that have been identified in unicellular organisms from the three domains of life. The intein self-excises following translation of the host gene, and therefore incurs a fitness cost for its carrier. The symbiotic state of the intein to its host is dependent on the presence or absence of a homing endonuclease domain, which facilitates horizontal transfer of the molecule. Identification of this domain provides information on the evolutionary history of the intein, as well as patterns of horizontal gene transfer in microbial communities. I have therefore developed Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) to identify homing endonuclease domains …

A Preliminary Study On The Role Of Enhancer Of Flavonoid Production (Efp) In Flavonoid Biosynthesis, Jia Guo

Honors Scholar Theses

Flavonoids are involved in a variety of biological roles ranging from pathogen protection, pigment intensity, antioxidant effects, and even prevention from cancer or cardiovascular diseases. Because of the diverse and beneficial functions that flavonoids have, the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway has been well studied. Recently, a gene called the Enhancer of Flavonoid Production (EFP) was discovered when mutations in this gene caused the Japanese morning glory flowers to exhibit a pale-colored phenotype. Although EFP is known to increase flavonoid production, the direct mechanism to how EFP enhances enzymes in the flavonoid biosynthetic pathway has yet to be discovered. It …

An Exploration Of The Phylogenetic Placement Of Recently Discovered Ultrasmall Archaeal Lineages, Jeffrey M. O'Brien

Honors Scholar Theses

In recent years, several new clades within the domain Achaea have been discovered. This is due in part to microbiological sampling of novel environments, and the increasing ability to detect and sequence uncultivable organisms through metagenomic analysis. These organisms share certain features, such as small cell size and streamlined genomes. Reduction in genome size can present difficulties to phylogenetic reconstruction programs. Since there is less genetic data to work with, these organisms often have missing genes in concatenated multiple sequence alignments. Evolutionary Biologists have not reached a consensus on the placement of these lineages in the archaeal evolutionary tree. There …

Physiological Response To Salinity Challenge Is Mediated By Na+, K+ - Atpase “Isoform Switching” In A Euryhaline Fish, The Alewife, Rebecca S. Colby

Honors Scholar Theses

Na⁺, K⁺-ATPase (NKA) a1a and a1b expression was investigated in Alewives in response to salinity challenge. Anadromous and landlocked Alewives were exposed to freshwater (0ppt) and seawater (30ppt) treatments and sampled at 2-, 5-, and 15-day time points. Anadromous alewives exhibit significant up-regulation of a1a in freshwater compared to seawater at all time points, and significant up-regulation of a1b in seawater compared to freshwater at all time points. In landlocked Alewives, a1a is significantly up regulated at the 5-day time point and a1b is significantly up regulated at all time points (in their respective salinities). Analysis …

Correlation Between Body Parts In Holometabolous And Hemimetabolous Insects, Temina Kusi

Honors Scholar Theses

Correlation is the mutual relationship and relatedness shared between two or more objects. There are many factors that contribute to the degree of correlation. These factors include shared similar traits, developmental origins and shared common ancestors. Though there have been many studies in patterns of correlation, especially among various species of vertebrates and plants, relatively little research has been conducted in studying patterns of correlation among invertebrate species such as insects. For my research, I am testing correlations between traits in insects. I investigated three hypotheses that were based on previous work on trait correlation: 1) there is a stronger …

An Examination Of The Phylogenetic Diversity Of Green Algae (Chlorophyceae) That Symbiose With Spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma Maculatum) In The Egg Stage., Crystal Xue

Honors Scholar Theses

In 1909, the species Oophila amblystomatis Lambert ex Wille was described for green algae that symbiose with salamanders in the egg stage (Wille). There are two hypotheses about the source of algae: 1) that algae enter from the surrounding water once the egg clutch is laid in a pond, and 2) that they are acquired from the maternal reproductive tract. We developed a third hypothesis developed to account for the salamander reproductive cycle. Male salamanders lay spermatophores, which are protein-filled capsules, on plant matter in and around ponds. Spermatophores are exposed to the environment before use by females in internal …

Pelargonium (Geraniaceae) And The Long-Tongued Fly Pollination Guild: Coevolution And Polymorphism In A Specialized Pollination System, Emily M. Blank

Honors Scholar Theses

In South Africa, a group of long-tongued flies and the flowering plants they pollinate form a unique and diverse pollination guild system almost entirely endemic to the Greater Cape Floristic Region. This system makes up only a small portion of the biodiversity of the Region, but it is likely a key to understanding the evolutionary processes that have lead to the observed biodiversity. Aside from its unusual pollinators, this guild system is of particular interest due to the extremely labile morphology of both the fly species and the associated flowering plant species, which geographically vary significantly in proboscis lengths and …

The Effect Of Landlocking On Intestinal Aquaporin 1 Expression In Alosa Pseudoharengus (Alewife), Emily Funk

Honors Scholar Theses

To determine the role of intestinal aquaporin 1 (AQP1), a passive water absorption channel, in the evolution of osmoregulatory physiology, I examined the differential expression of intestinal AQP1 between anadromous and landlocked ecotype of alewife in response to seawater challenges. I cloned and sequenced AQP1 from intestinal tissue of the alewife, following which I quantified the relative expression of AQP1 in each ecotype using Real-Time qPCR. In response to an acute seawater (30ppt) challenge, the anadromous alewives showed an upregulation of intestinal AQP1, while the landlocked alewives did not show a significant increased in AQP1 expression. After …

Evolution Of The Bacteriorhodopsin Gene Bop In Haloarchaea, Maulik Jitesh Jani

Honors Scholar Theses

Rhodopsins are among the most studied protein families. They all incorporate a light based chromophore and an opsin. They are found in all three domains of life and can be found in diverse environments, such as the membrane of the haloarchaea, Haloarcula (Haa) marismortui, growing on salt flats in Death Valley, to within human tissues and deep sea water (Briggs and Spudich 2005). Rhodopsins can serve multifarious purposes, from phototaxis away from harmful light to efficient energy generation. Bacteriorhodopsin is the best studied rhodopsin in haloarchaea. The evolutionary pattern of bacteriorhodopsin through its gene, bop, is the main focus of …

Relative Abundance Of Mitochondria Rich Cell Types In Threespine Stickleback: Interpopulation Differences And Salinity Effects, Dante Paolino

Honors Scholar Theses

The objective of this study is to determine whether there are evolutionary trade-offs among populations isolated to different salinities in nature with regards to mitochondria rich (MR) cell production. We expected differences among populations in MR cell abundances due to the energy requirements needed to maintain and produce these cells. Eggs from three populations of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) were hatched and reared for 10 weeks and then the fish were put into one of two salinity challenges: either 0.4 ppt freshwater or 35 ppt saltwater for 13 days. The populations consisted of one isolated to freshwater, one isolated …

Time Series Observations Of Species Composition And Behavioral Interactions Of Fish At An Ocean Observatory Off The Coast Of Georgia, Amy E. Paquette

Honors Scholar Theses

The use of ocean observatories is expanding with the potential for collecting serial data with high temporal resolution at multiple sites within an ecosystem. Integration of underwater video cameras in observatory systems allow observation of vagile species and are useful tools for observing variations in behavior over time. In order to assess the utility of using video records for time series behavioral data I analyzed video records from an observatory site in the South Atlantic Bight (SAB) off the Coast of Georgia collected during the month of November in 2000, 2002 and 2004. Data were used to quantify annual variation …

The Role Of Raf Kinase Inhibitor Protein In Cell Motility, Kathryn Grive

Honors Scholar Theses

Raf Kinase Inhibitor Protein (RKIP) has been identified as a phosphatidylethanolamine-binding protein capable of inhibiting Raf-1 kinase, an enzyme significant in cell proliferation and cancer development. When properly functioning, RKIP can mediate the expression of Raf-1 kinase and help prevent uncontrolled cell division. RKIP also has suggested, but unclear, roles in spindle fiber formation during mitosis, regulation of apoptosis, and cell motility. The Fenteany laboratory in the Chemistry Department identified a new small molecule, named Locostatin, as a cell migration inhibitor in mammalian cells, with RKIP as its primary molecular target.

Dictyostelium discoideum possess two RKIP proteins, RKIP-A and RKIP-B. …

Ontogenetic Effects Of Hatching Plasticity In The Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma Maculatum) Due To Egg And Larval Predators, Leah Brown-Wilusz

Honors Scholar Theses

The ability to respond plastically to the environment has allowed amphibians to evolve a response to spatial and temporal variation in predation threat (Benard 2004). Embroys exposed to egg predation are expected to hatch out earlier than their conspecifics. Larval predation can induce a suite of phenotypic changes including growing a larger tail area. When presented with cues from both egg and larval predators, embryos are expected to respond to the egg predator by hatching out earlier because the egg predator presents an immediate threat. However, hatching early may be costly in the larval environment in terms of development, morphology, …